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Public Mobile: “We can see ourselves as being the ones consolidating”
A few days ago Naguib Sawiris, Chairman of Orascom and WIND Mobile financial backer, said that both Mobilicity and Public Mobile are “dead on arrival” and they will inevitably be acquired by WIND.
It seems Public is standing their ground that this will not happen. In an interview Bruce Kirby, Public Mobile VP of strategy and business development, said “We can see ourselves as being the ones consolidating… We would much rather build up a business and demonstrate that we can serve this segment of customers effectively and efficiently, rather than sell out quickly… No one has made any formal offers, I am pretty sure to anybody.”
Public Mobile invested $53 million during the recent Spectrum auction and has the possibility of reaching 19 million customers from Windsor to Quebec City. They are backed by a $50 million investment from OMERS and in June announced a whopping $350 financing deal with ZTE Corporation and the Export-Import Bank of China to help them build out their network. In the interview Kirby also stated they’ll be opening locations in Ottawa and Quebec City in early 2011. In addition, confirming plans to go beyond talk and text is to eventually offer data services such as email, IM and picture/video messaging.
On paper it looks like Public Mobile has everything set up correctly: entered into the market with low upfront costs, have millions of dollars given to you by big investors and a decent distribution channel. Unfortunately, there’s been no official word on how many subscribers Public has brought on with their low-cost unlimited talk and text plans.
In 5 years what do you think the Canadian wireless market will look like?
Source: Winnipeg Free Press
Discussion
34 comments for “Public Mobile: “We can see ourselves as being the ones consolidating””
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I hope they survive along with Wind and Mobilicity as independents. Otherwise we’ll be back to square one with no competition and fixed pricing by the big 3.
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I agree with cheenachatze 100% !!. People apparently seem to be a bit too concerned about who owns what company rather than how this is helping the consumer. In the end it is only to our benefit that these new competitors have arrived. Look at the response that has already been drawn out from 2 of the 3, the relaunching of Solo, the launch of Chatr and some reworked rate plans!
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let the companies battle it out, let the market decide their faith, “the invisible hand” will take care of the rest
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If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life it’s that open markets are a sham without strict regulations and government oversight.
Letting the markets solve themselves just let’s the richest and dirtiest companies win, which usually is not in theinterest of the consumer.
And right now our telecommunications regulations are incredibly lax and does nothing to protect new entrants.
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i think they will stick around, we need them, canada need them. im sick n tired of the big 3
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Just now I saw a new Rogers ad on the bus that had “illimité” (unlimited) written on it about 10 times referring to the same student plan. Looks like Public Mobile is doing their job right in Montreal.
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Yeah, it’s for their ‘unlimited’ student plan. Unlimited local calling (for 3 months) social networking (means no google). And then texting and some other services no one uses.
Point is we’re seeing them too. Like right now there’s a “rogers unlimited family plan” ad right under neath where I’m typing this in (ironically on my phone).
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I will be switching to Public soon.Work and live in Montreal and all of my family and friends are within the island. No need to go with the Big 3 and I can cancel my Landline with Bell.
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Although I have no problems with Mobilicity/PM in terms of ownership even though they’re poor companies,Wind/Orascom are a different story completely and ownership in this case is very important…it’s clear that Wind is not a Canadian company since no North American investors wanted to fund them and in desperation they chose a predator like Orascom who actually has full control.Even the way Wind got into the market was disgraceful since this doesn’t serve our citizens in any fruitful way and the government’s actions proved all these new entrants won’t provide any stability to our industry.
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Yeah. I hate foreign companies. I’m sure you seem too as well since your hate for Wind is strong. So I guess you made that message on a Canadian computer made by a Canadian company bought with money earned from a Canadian company, hmm?
I’m sure there’s no hypocrisy in your statement at all.
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I hope Mobilicity and PM survive without being bought out since they do serve a purpose in their niche although they need to make some major chances,however I hope Wind fails which is a good possibility and that they are run out of town or bought out by someone more reputable which is a possibility in the future that will hopefully also change the key players that are simple opportunists…one journalist reported that Orascom desperately needs certain assets that T-Mobile has and wouldnèt it be nice if they made an exchange.In any case,Canada doesn’t need either Wind/Orascom or Swasiman where the interview he did clearly shows how pompous/unreliable/dishonest he is considering he is only able to cut up our Big Three after they built the infrastructure here for years while he runs his corrupt empire full of tax fraud/crooked deals/involvement with criminals and offers nothing to our nation.
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looool public is the weakest among the new entrants
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I don’t hate foreigners or foreign companies,most of them act decently and overall are reputable…Orascom is totally different…they are a corrupt predator that has a disgusting record anywhere they go and anyone who supports them is a fool.Of course,if you want to be a fool to support them that is your choice and I’m not stopping you…however don’t be a Fanboy who just lies about Wind to get slightly cheaper rates or claim that the Big Three are monsters when they are not.
So who are the real pathetic HYPOCRITES!
By the way I built my own computer and I’m very selective in the parts I use including software,so again no real point or actual defense…just anger that those that speak against Wind/Orascom speak the truth and the facts are clear.
Hope your cheap Android is very impressive to all the girls…talking about Wind Fanboys!!!
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@JAWG
If you would just for once back up your allegations with actual evidence other than “everyone knows”, some people might even believe you. As long as you don’t, you will remain a troll forever.
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Not sure how Public Mobile will survive. They are very slow on the Smartphone wagon – and that is where the profit is
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I can say only one thing is that if the Crtc does not change its regulations and rules in 5 years, there will be no heavy competition. There still is no competition in Canada Wind, Mobilicity and Public have come which is great but their prices and Rates are the same including Rogers chatr and Solo mobile. If any wireless company changes the prices or adds a new feature for Example like free incoming, then we will see competition as what will happen, is that all the other wireless companies for example mobilicity or Rogers, one of them will start copying that company which lauched free incoming feature and customers will grow and run to that provider. Perfect example is Europe and Asia they have free incoming and better tariffs. But until then nothing is going to happen. So far wind is doing a well job by porting a number and get installments up to 6 months.
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Well you might want to look into Virgin Mobile, their plans are actually looking pretty good after some updates they made recently. True they are currently owned by Bell but i dont really see that as a bad thing as their network is solid, and seeing these prices for data plans (including unltd incoming) are pretty impressive.
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@Rad,
For crying out loud. PM said they were not into the smartphone and they are sticking to their guns. There will be people cancelling their landlines and they do not have smartphones as landlines right. Not everyone wants a smartphone.
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It is unfortunate that PM picked CDMA. The entire world is moving away from it (including Bell and Telus) yet they are starting a new business using a technology that is considered obsolete from a consumer’s perspective.
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Public Mobile’s network is easily upgraded. When you consider the cost(cheap) of setting up of the network. They have good margins on their handsets. But of course the rub is as positive as all these are financially. Will enough people sign up on this CDMA/Handset technology. So they can hang in and eventually upgrade from this current network. We can look forward to PM having a impressive coverage area due to cost.
Maybe PM will be profitable after all. The Jury is still out.
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@Mike:
Are you a bonehead or what,in the other Wind thread I posted 5-6 different articles backing what I said and none of you Fanboys even responded…that’s all you hypocrites are good for…you call anyone speaking the truth names/make false accusations/never disprove anything and only lie about that provider claiming they are so great while in fact they are garbage.
Plus there is NO question that Orascom is corrupt and the proof is out there.It is so easy to come into a new country where all the infrastructure is already built and criticize the incumbents,yet when you actually look at Wind’s performance so far they are the pathetic ones and so are their backers.It’s amazing how easily some of you are brainwashed with no opinions of your own and the only troll is you.
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JAWG you can post all the links you like.. in the end they all think its a plant from the big 3.. anytime someone says something thought provoking that are a troll or a big 3 plant.
Tammy saw the light.. Mcnutts saw it also..
Have you noticed how they now all seem to agree that Orascom is running things.. the more research you do the more you come up with.. Orascom or Octomom? they both want all the press.
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@Rocco:
Hey Bro,totally agree with you and hopefully some here will eventually take time to educate themselves before they finally decide which way to go,it’s a shame Wind/Orascom were allowed into the market since there are much better companies/corporations out there and we both know that in time W/O will self destruct without our help…until then expressing one’s right for freedom of speech and the funny thing is how desperately both W/O want to silence our opinions.What do you expect from Swasiman who specializes in tax fraud,dealing with dictators and selling/buying assets simply to look powerful…means nothing in terms of integrity and shows how superior our Big Three really are if you’re honest.Yes,the rates are high and they could be lower…but blame the government for that by fighting for change and don’t allow other garbage companies/corporations into Canada who are foreign owned for their own greedy purposes.
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@ M Lee,
The reason Bell and Telus moved away from CDMA is because Rogers and other companies were getting better phones. Most of the world uses GSM and cell phone manufacturers would put a bigger variety of phones for carriers that used GSM which only makes sense. I have been with Telus ever since the early Clearnet days. And I noticed that Rogers and Fido would alwyas have new phones out even in the 2G era. But I didn’t care. But there are many that have to have the latest shiny phones and would awitch from Bell/Telus to Rogers because they had nicer phones and it was easier to upgrade a phone because it had a SIM card.
And while some may knock on the small entrants. I had Clearnet(CDMA) which operated in TO and Montreal and had good coverage. And great customer service which now doesn’t exist with Telus. With Clearnet there was no contracts and after a few months they texted me to say they would give me an extra 100 day time minutes! Let’s see the big 3 do that without sucking you into a 3 year contract.
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You are right on JAWG. The wind employees all elected to not comment when you quoted the facts.
Aileen, I think thou doth protest too much.
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Speculation time:
In 5yrs, here’s what I predict will be shaping the Canadian cellular telecom industry.
Bell and Telus will be one company, possibly also MTS;
Rogers will have swallowed Sasktel, Shaw and Videotron, and more than likely have some real significant tie-in with AT&T (maybe up to 50% ownership);
T-Mobile will have bought out Mobilicity completely, and expanded coverage from just city zones;
Wind will still be plugging away, but they won’t be a truly significant player (big, but not big enough to throttle prices like they’re trying to do now);
Public will be gone;
There won’t be Chatr any longer either;
Fido, Virgin, Solo will still be around;
We’ll all still be bitching about how much we’re being over-charged, even though our rates have come down 25%. LOL
These speculations are just thinking out loud, hoping foreign ownership laws are removed to a significant degree. Only time will tell…
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@tbr:
In another Wind thread on here with 82 comments they seem to have lost a few,I wonder if Swasiman is now on-line giving out donations and doing some of his fancy social work…he is a proud humanitarian you know!?!
On a side note!
You know when you go on the Wind site,there is a picture with 3 individuals sitting down in the ad and the last guy is really over-weight…I heard Big Al won a contest and got to be featured in the photo.Lucky devil!
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@Rene:
Sounds possible…good predictions.
Yet,with the massive problems Orascom is having now around the world with more to come as investigators go after them and Wind not being able to get sufficient financing to grow I can see them being involved in a major scandal very soon…plus a lot (and I mean a lot) of people hate Swasiman for conning them in bad deals making his future pretty unstable which is why he is focusing on other ventures and if they link up with the almost as corrupt Russian Giant it’s almost a done deal where he’ll be finished.
Swasiman’s money may be good on paper,however Orascom is probably not that sound in reality and will have to pay for the risks they took (especially in North Korea going against the West)…half their capital was locked into Algiers and with their other failures big surprises are in store.
With the Big Three all pushing new technology I think Wind will eventually be sold for scrap because of their weak network and Mobilicity may go with T-mobile as you said because there is already a close partnership.
As far as Tony the Gigolo goes he’ll be selling used cars and Swasiman once out of jail will be providing them.
Just a theory!
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Prime Minister will not change the Regulations and policies in the wireless company as he is too greedy and wants to keep the wireless industry in Canada political. We have too much politics in the wireless sector when we should not have any. Stephen Harper will keep sucking out money out of us Canadians and will remain to. What a greedy and political prime minister for the most ridiciolous reasons.
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exactly TBR!!! You aren’t even allowed ot post customer service issues on their site anymore.
wind=verry corrupt, the high cost of low price…mayeb one should do a documentary on wind mobile, that would be VERY interesting to me and juicy in press perhaps,perhaps not….
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@Aman:
Although I voted PC and probably still will in the next election considering the alternatives,the Liberals/NDP would be worse in power and the corruption even stronger…however the way Clement allowed Wind/Orascom into the market was disgraceful which had absolutely nothing to do with fairness in view of all the hidden issues and ironically it was the only time the CRTC actually made a wise decision not to let them in.If you’re going to allow scum in,then open the doors further to also allow AT7T/T-Mobile/etc and let the best man win-that decision did nothing to help our industry or to truly reduce rates and only brought in more garbage.There is nothing wrong with our Big Three,still our regulations/method of operation is pathetic and only the government can change that…and maybe like Luke said wisely it’s time to see what is really going on and push for that.
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I will be simple, sorta.
Nationals
Rogers ( fido, chatr….who knows)
Bell
Telus
Wind ( will buy MOBILICITY, public mobile. )
Regionals
Sasktell
Videotron
Sahw mobile
And many more.
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Oh can you so funny.. what will wind buy them with? camel dung. they just lost 3 major accounts and they have no money honey.. ask uncle swarie.. they offered to buy it from him and he said no.. funny they ask him and no Jabroni? why?
you know why.. we all do.. funny how his suit was not shiny! the owners suit was made of the finest Egyptian cotton.. ooops did I let the camel out the bag? Uncle Swarie!
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With Public Mobile they will fail hard, phones sucks, coverage sucks, plans alright, and they don’t have anything else to deliver in the market sry public your company is going to fall first!
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